Protecting the 'Stop Using My Data' Right through Blockchain-assisted Evidence Generation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a blockchain-based evidence generation framework to enforce users' 'stop using my data' rights, addressing limitations of existing privacy measures and demonstrating high success in real-world recommendation system scenarios.

Contribution

It presents the first blockchain-assisted system with a novel two-stage evidence protocol to deter data right violations, specifically targeting the 'stop using my data' right.

Findings

Success rate exceeds 99% in case studies

Effective deterrence of data right violations

Validated with real-world datasets

Abstract

In order to provide personalized services to users, Internet-based platforms collect and utilize user-generated behavioral data. Although the 'stop using my data' right should be a fundamental data right, which allows individuals to request their personal data to be no longer utilized by online platforms, the existing preventive data protection measures (e.g., cryptographic data elimination, differential privacy) are unfortunately not applicable. This work aims to develop the first Evidence Generation Framework for deterring post-acquisition data right violations. We formulated the 'stop using my data' problem, which captures a vantage facet of the multi-faceted notion of 'right to be forgotten'. We designed and implemented the first blockchain-assisted system to generate evidence for deterring the violations of the 'stop using my data' right. Our system employs a novel two-stage evidence generation protocol whose efficacy is ensured by a newly proposed Lemma. To validate our framework, we conducted a case study on recommendation systems with systematic evaluation experiments using two real-world datasets: the measured success rate exceeds 99%.